Review and Giveaway from Contemporary Cloth!

The generous staff at Contemporary Cloth sent me a yard of laminate fabric and a package of Insul-Fleece to try out.  I used them to make a messenger bag and matching lunch bag for my oldest daughter for back-to-school.  The Insul-Fleece was used in the lunch bag which will help keep her lunch cold, and I have plans to make some new oven mitts and pot holders with this fantastic product too.  The laminate was a pleasure to work with, it has a great feel and weight; and my only 'trick' I had to use was a bit of masking tape on the bottom of my presser foot when I topstitched.

Contemporary Cloth is giving TWO lucky winners a full yard of laminated fabric and a package of Insul-Fleece!  Here's how to enter:

• Hop over to the Contemporary Cloth website and leave a comment telling me what other product of theirs caught your eye, and what kind of project you would like to make with either the laminated fabric or Insul-Fleece.
• Leave an extra comment if you're a public follower of my blog.
• If you blog, Facebook, or tweet about this giveaway, you can leave a third comment (please include the link).

Giveaway open internationally. Winners will be drawn by Random.org on Oct 11th.  Good luck!

More Phoebe bags . . .

After making this bag, I've had a couple friends request one, and I happily obliged. The pattern is the Phoebe Bag by Rebeka Lambert.  I would call this a medium size purse, but it's roomy enough to carry a book in addition to my wallet and purse stuff (or for a diaper and wipes case and ditching the diaper bag).  The pattern is easy, and I love the finished shape.

Six weeks ago I ordered three yards of Pellon Fusible Fleece, and after ten bags it's almost gone now.  It gives such a nice structure to bags and purses, without the stiffness of most interfacings.  I'm thinking a bigger purchase is in the near future.

Linking up to Sew & Tell Friday at AmyLouWho.
And make sure to enter this generous sponsored giveaway from Contemporary Cloth!

Animal Party quilt top finished . . .

So I used up every last Animal Party scrap and added a scrappy border for this quilt top.  I even had to add in a few scraps that weren't from this line ~ can you tell which ones?  The size is now 52" x 82" and it looks kinda crooked from this camera angle, but I was standing on my kitchen island because it's raining outside.  My four-year old thought I was being dangerous and told me to get down.

My goal for this week is to get it pin basted.  And I'm contemplating how to quilt it, not sure I want to do free motion with this one.  Maybe straight lines, or wavy lines since it's wonky?  I'd love some suggestions :)

Making Time For Play . . .

This is my second post for the Kinder campaign, and their challenge question is 'How do you make time for play?'.  I know that I take full advantage of my husband's days off so we call all do a family outing, a bike ride, and participate in community events.  But what do I do on a daily basis?

After thinking about it, I realized that it's the little things ~ taking time to paint my girls toe nails, guiding them through a small sewing project, teaching them how to make friendship bracelets, letting them bake up a batch of cookies without me taking over, helping them with a craft, taking turns with them when there's a couple groceries or some shopping to do so we get some one-on-one time, and sitting down to play a board game together.  These are the moments where we have the most candid discussions, and make the mother-daughter connections.  So, how do you make time for play?

10 Lucky Facebook fans are going to win a KINDER® gift basket full of goodies worth $200!  Fun!  Make sure you go over to the page to get your entry in (click on Contests to stay up to date with the latest giveaways!)

Disclosure: I’m part of the KINDER® Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

and the StitchSteals.com winner is . . .

Congratulations to Debra!  You are going to have so much fun picking out $50 in fabric from this amazingly priced shop!  And for everyone else, remember that StitchSteal.com offers a deal a day on designer fabrics and sewing accessories, and you can even combine past steals for an even better deal!  I have been so pleased with their reasonably priced and quick shipping, and love getting my fabrics for a steal!

And today I just finished my first project with laminate fabric - a messenger bag for my oldest daughter.  We're both pretty pleased with the results.  And on my cutting table right now is a matching lunch bag.  I'm using Insul-Fleece to insulate it, and I'll be doing a review on this great product.  I'll be sure to post the matching set soon!

applique with HeatNBond . . .

A good friend is about to have her third babe, and had asked me to look into getting a good deal on a bunch of cloth diapers for her (I've cloth diapered my little guy since he was a newborn due to allergic reactions and eczema, and it's gone really well - and saved us a lot of money).  So, I found everything she needed to cloth diaper full time, and a couple of her sisters and friends split the cost with me.  We then surprised her with a mini-shower the other night so she would have everything before the babe arrives.  We did the usual baby shower games, and finished off with a 'make a onesie' craft.

Supplies needed was a package of HeatNBond Ultra Hold, a bunch of fabric scraps, and an iron & ironing board.  For the onesies, I just went through my newborn box and picked out a bunch.  We had a lot of fun creating, and most of the designs have to do with her husband's hobby of gaming and his sense of humour.

I think I'm going to dig out some of my daughters stained t-shirts and try this on them too.

WIP Wednesday . . .

Justin's quilt for his new 'big boy' bed is coming along nicely.  I intentionally wanted this to be a wonky quilt, and as I was laying out all the blocks on the floor yesterday, my four-year old comes up beside me and looks, turns her head and looks again, and exclaims "Mom, that looks ridiculous!" ~ she didn't believe me that it's supposed to look like that.

The blocks and sashing are all together, I just want to add a scrappy border to make it a bit bigger before I quilt it.  I tried it on the little guys bed to see how big it is so far, and can't wait to see it finished and on there all the time.  And I'm happy to report that the crib is packed up now, because the crib/bed transition went WAY easier than it ever did with my girls.

a Rolie Polie quilt . . .

I received an Alphabet Soup Rolie Polie and whipped up a quick little quilt for a babe due to arrive this month.

This Riley Blake line is so fun, and I'm always drawn to their fabric lines with bright colours.

Here's the directions if you want to make one yourself:

• divide the fabrics into two sets of 7 (I left the solid white strip out)
• sew the 7 strips together in each set
• cut up each set into 3 quilt blocks and square them off (mine were 14")
• lay out the blocks how you like, and sew them together.
• sandwich, quilt, and bind

I used a non-pill fleece for the backing and instead of binding it, I wrapped it to the front and machine-stitched it down.  This is a great way to finish off a quilt quickly.  And I like using fleece or minky for a baby quilt, because I can just skip the batting layer.  And the quilting is very forgiving because it sinks into the backing so nicely.

After washing, the finished measurement on this quilt was 40" x 27" ~ a great size to wrap up a little one, and have them drag it around with them when they get a bit bigger.

Gift Certificate Giveaway to StitchSteals.com!

StitchSteals.com has generously offered a $50 gift certificate to one of my readers!!  Just think of the yards of fabric, jelly rolls, or even a fat quarter stack you could purchase with that!  $50 goes a long way in their shop!

You can have up to three entries for this one:

• Connect with StitchSteals.com ~ you can like them on Facebook, or sign up for their email alerts (and they'll send a 10% off coupon to all new customers!).  Of course, I recommend doing both, but you just get one entry.
• Publicly follow the Stitch Steals blog.
• Publicly follow my blog 'Our Busy Little Bunch' ~ so I can get more great sponsors!

That's it this time ~ three entries per person. Just leave a separate comment for each entry, and an email address so I can contact you if you win.  This giveaway is open international, and a winner will be picked on Monday, Sept 19th.  Good luck!

Now go check out their steal of the day and all the past steals up for grabs to combine shipping ~ you won't be disappointed!

My first 'big boy' quilt . . .

My 'little' guy is having his second birthday this Friday ~ yes, he was born 09/09/09, which I didn't think was very 'cool' at the time because the little stinker was 12 days overdue.  The hubby and I were at Ikea a little while ago and saw this bed.  So I've been looking on Craigslist since then, and found one in great condition for half the price.  The little guy helped in the assembling process last night . . .

And now I can play with these fabris that I've been saving for his first 'big boy' quilt.  I'm thinking of cutting apart the panel (there's 8 blocks in total), bordering them, and cutting them wonky.  Any tips are appreciated, I've never done a wonky quilt before.  The fabrics are from the original Animal Party line by Amy Schimler and the backing fabric is a coordinating minky cuddle from Robert Kaufman.

So hopefully there will be a quilt on this bed soon!

And the Aurifil winners are . . .

Congrats!  I'll email you all for your mailing info.  

And check back this week for another great giveaway sponsored by StitchSteals.com!

Have you heard of StitchSteals.com?

This is one of those secrets that I almost don't want to share, but have you heard of StitchSteals.com?  It's a site that offers a deal a day on designer fabrics and sewing accessories.  Some of my favourite lines have come up for a steal of a price, and the shipping is always more than reasonable (even international!).  And, you can look at their past steals and scoop up some extra deals to combine shipping.  

And they're offering a very generous giveaway to one of my readers later this week . . . 

Baby & You blog tour . . .

So picture this ~ you've had a horrific day with your teething baby, your toddler has decided that they will only eat cereal and nothing else, and your wannabe-tween is giving you so much attitude you can't handle it any more!  You need to vent, you need advice, and you don't really know who to call.  You hover over the keyboard wondering how to phrase it as your new Facebook status, but not sure if you should bother ~ does your husband's uncle or your single friends really want to hear about this?!

So let me introduce you to Baby & You ~ a place for parents (new and experienced) to seek and share advice from one another.  And the discussion is often guided by two experienced blogging mama's ~ Lisa from 'Growing Your Baby' handles the baby talk, and Jody from 'Mommy Moment' focuses on the parent talk.

It's also a great place to find out about exclusive savings and promotions from the Loblaws group (including one coming up this month for Joe Fresh).  So if you need a place to visit during your coffee break, why not check it out?  It's a Facebook community of  13,000 and growing!


Disclosure – I am participating in the Baby and You program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of Loblaw Companies. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Feeling Groovy . . .

I like to make birthday gifts, it makes me feel productive, and gives me an excuse to order fabric :)  So the girls picked out a bunch of prints from Riley Blake's Feeling Groovy line and this is my first attempt at stockpiling some birthday gifts for the new school year.

This pattern is a modified version of the 6-pocket bag, I changed the dimensions to fit a Bible & song book for church, something that's come in really handy for my girls.  Now I'm off to play with the scraps left over from these little bags . . .